Start A Meetup

So, you want to start a Consciousness Hacking meetup? Awesome! We are here to support you.

First and foremost, we get excited every time someone wants to start a meetup. You are the energy that keeps Consciousness Hacking alive and growing. And much more important than the organization, you are supporting the development and use of new tools for human flourishing. So, thank you!

Consciousness Hacking is a new idea space

Well, the ideas are not that new, but they are emerging in a new way into popular culture. Thus, there is often quite a bit of confusion about what Consciousness Hacking is.

So, our job is to support you the best we can in starting a new meetup, AND to make sure that you are in-keeping with the deeper vision of CH.

Then take a look at our core values, and see if they resonate for you:

Core Values

Consciousness Hacking (CH) explores, develops, and supports technology as a catalyst for individual and collective transformation. Transformation can generally be defined as a positive or healthy shift in subjective experience.

CH recognizes the importance of diverse perspectives and continued debate, and does not advocate any particular religious, spiritual or scientific belief system or theory of consciousness.

CH meetups should focus on technology. Generally speaking, if it doesn’t run on electricity it’s not technology. Though there are exceptions.

Traditional or non-technological means of fostering awareness and connection within meetups, such as group meditation or sharing, are highly encouraged.

CH recognizes the need for as many ‘paths’ or tools for wellbeing as possible. Thus, we don’t seek to oppose or compete with any existing scientific, technological, spiritual or religious paths, but rather we recognize and support our shared mission in this world.

We are what we build, we build what we are. In that spirit, the makers of Transformative Technologies should always be focused on their own continual evolution. This is the path of the Transformative Technologist.

Now onto the fun stuff ‐ how to get started

So, you’ve read through the descriptions of Consciousness Hacking and you still feel aligned. Wondeful! Let’s talk about how to get started.

It’s actually fairly easy to get a meetup going. Here are the basic steps:

1. Find your team

This is actually one of the hardest parts of starting a meetup! It’s possible to do this alone, but highly recommended to find one or two others to support you, and take on some of the responsibility.

2. Email our meetup coordinator

[[email protected]]. This helps us to get to know you more personally so we can maintain a deeper connection with the community. It also helps us to support you in certain ways including promotion, addition to website, and to distribute some additional documents.

3. Setup your meetup.com page

This is not mandatory, but it is strongly advised and has worked well for the organization so far.

Feel free to copy from any other CH meetup page that you like, including CHSF. We ask that you use a version of the CH logo, which is available HERE. You are welcome to add or change text to include your city name. Once the page is setup, send us the link, and we’ll add it to the website. Here are some example meetup.com pages:

4. Create a FB page (not group)

This is helpful for posting events. I’ve found that Facebook pages are more convenient for posting and advertising events than FB groups. This is also another way to keep people updated, and to advertise events. Here are a few FB Page examples:

5. Decide on the structure of your first meetup

Keep it simple. There is no need to worry about anything fancy, like speakers, breakout sessions, etc. A small group, exploring their own definition of Consciousness Hacking is a powerful way to birth your community. That said, many people do like have a speaker from the beginning, and this does seem to help attract people. You can often find good speakers at local universities, startups, and neurofeedback clinics.

6. Set the date of your first meetup, and post it

Weekday evenings are good. In the Bay Area we will often start at 6:30pm with snacks and socializing. The official start is usually closer to 7:00. We have also had good luck on weekend afternoons. It can be helpful to give yourself a 30-40 day window to spread the word. It also helps to create a Facebook event. Just copy and paste from the meetup.com event. You may want to include the link to the meetup event in the FB event so that people can RSVP there. Getting them to sign up for meetup will help you communicate more easily with the community.

7. Spread the word

Meetup.com will help you to advertise automatically once you post the event. Also, once it’s posted, send us the link and we’ll post to the CH network. To start, your personal social network will be your best friend. Ask friends who are connectors to help you by sharing your FB event on Facebook. It can also help to make a spiffy poster for your event. Ask a designer friend to help you out.

Bigger is not better. The first CH meetup ever was in Santa Cruz, and had about 9 people. It was wonderful. We sat in a circle and had a deep and open discussion which is hard to accomplish in large groups. It was also a chance, as a first time organizer, to enter into an open dialogue. To learn from the community, and engage from a place of inquiry and not-knowing.

Also, send us the link for your event, and we will do our best to let folks know as well.

Some additional resources

Check out our Pinterest page for nifty visual nuggets you can use for pages, fliers, or for aesthetic inspiration. We call this look: retro-hipster-techno-spiritual.

HERE you can find quite a few useful items including a guide on how to run a meetup, logo, images, etc

Have an awesome event! And thank You!

We are so happy to have you join the Consciousness Hacking hacking community. And especially happy to know that you are helping to support a global shift toward our greatest human potential.